The present invention concerns a folded box with an anti-tamper seal especially for the packaging of drugs, with a body that has at least one closure component that closes off the body, whereby a seal for protecting the box from unauthorized opening is positioned between the closure component and the body of the box and to a method of manufacturing such a box.
In packaging a number of different types of goods, especially drugs, it is essential to ensure that the final consumer will receive them in their original state, the state in which they leave the factory. The boxes are accordingly provided with an anti-tamper seal, meaning that they are sealed in such a way that any unauthorized opening of the package as it travels from the manufacturer to the consumer will be evident.
A number of demands that are as a whole difficult to comply with must be taken into consideration in creating an anti-tamper seal, especially a seal that is appropriate for drugs.
The seal must be extensively counterfeit-proof. Many known methods of sealing boxes that are adequate for goods, that the quality of is not highly significant and that are not likely to be subject to adulteration, are accordingly impractical for drugs.
Nevertheless, it must be possible for the pharmacist to open the container to check the contents in such a way that the box can subsequently be closed again (but without reestablishing the seal).
During packaging, it must be possible either to apply the anti-tamper seal with practically 100% accuracy or to monitor its application.
The seal must affect the design of the box as little as possible.
The cost of manufacturing the package must be increased as little as possible.
The method of applying the anti-tamper seal must be designed to prevent deceleration of the normal processing rate for packaging drugs.
A known anti-tamper seal for drug boxes consists of adhesive labels that are applied to a point on the box, which is generally parallelipipedal, at which the tuck-flap component of the closure is generally inserted under the corresponding area of the main part of the box. This type of anti-tamper seal is, however, not completely satisfactory with respect to the prevention of inevident opening and reclosing of the box. The application of adhesive labels also adds too much to the cost of packaging drugs. Specifically, special machinery must be introduced into the packaging line, leading to considerable occupation of space and to investment costs. Furthermore, the machinery available for this purpose cannot attain the requisite throughput. Even more delays result from the unavoidable necessity of replacing rolls of labels. And the labels themselves add considerably to the costs as well as undesirably affecting the design of the box.